Bottom Road is a toilet

Representatives of the Zeekoevlei Civic Association, the Friends of Rondevlei and Zeekoevlei and Bottom Road Sanctuary met with Nature Conservation and City officials yesterday, 7 September 2011. Our local councillor, Shaun August, was instrumental in setting up the meeting. As this was our first meeting with our new councillor, we took the opportunity to find out a little about him. He was a Pollsmoor prison warden for 10 years, with special responsibility for dangerous prisoners. He has been in council for three-and-a-half years, first as an ID councillor and now on the DA ticket after the amalgamation of the ID and DA. He is Deputy Chair of the Safety and Security portfolio and is touted to become the next Chair of the Drug Unit.

In attendance at the meeting was Ozzie Asmal, Director of the City’s Environmental Resource Management Department as well as Councillor Dalton from the Zandvlei ward. Like our reserves, Zandvlei has been hit by budget cuts and their pondweed has not been cleared because the weed eater was not functioning. In order to have their opening sail this year, the Zandvlei Yacht Club had to first clear a passage for the boats through the water weed.

At the meeting, the following issues were raised:

• The shortage of budget, staff and resources such as vehicles and tipper trucks.
• How to deal with the litter flowing into Zeekoevlei and Zandvlei from the catchment upstream.
• Water quality
• Provision for additional budget and staff to cope with the population pressures of the new Pelican Park development.

Apparently, the reserves were supplementing their annual budget with funds from the Environmental Resource Management Department’s Head Office budget. Part of the reason that much work was done over the last years was that there were funds from Denmark, which allowed for ERMD budgets to be used for a wider spectrum of issues, including work at nature reserves. These funds have since ceased and this has impacted the a number of areas, including the Skills Development Programme, which was a great success. However, we have learned that the ERMD Head Office funding has now been allocated to Baboon Management which is already a Departmental commitment. There are also several other commitments that need to be honoured. Why some R10 milllion is being spent to protect a species that is not endangered is a question that was not answered at the meeting. This may well be an issue to raise in the media. We may need to tackle this as a separate issue in the future.

However, the meeting was conducted in a spirit of co-operation and mutual respect and concrete actions have been agreed upon. Our local councillor is going to raise the issue at subcouncil level and keep it in the forefront of their agenda. The Environmental Resource Management Department is going to explore co-operation with the Solid Waste, Roads and Stormwater and Catchment Management Departments of the City to help with the litter and water quality issues that affect Zeekoevlei, through upstream pollution. Interim measures are being planned to shore up the shortfall in budget for this financial year.

It is anticipated (and subject to funding) that by 1 January 2012, the False Bay Nature Reserve will have a six-member Skills Development team. This is half of the number we had, but six is better than nothing. Furthermore, we were given an undertaking that attempts will be made to make allowance in the budget for annual occurrences like the reed removal in Zeekoevlei and the water weed removal in Zandvlei.
Civic associations will be liasing with the City Manager to ensure that the fence between the Pelikan Park development and the Reserve is built and budget allocated for maintenance of the fence.

We are confident that our concerns have been brought to the attention of the relevant role-players and we will continue to monitor the situation and intervene where warranted.

LA

The city has responded to this blog and suggested the corrections/changes hi-lighted in red above – its nice to see their interest – Richard